Clinton's Effort to Build a Syrian Government in Exile Seems Doomed

Clinton’s Effort to Build a Syrian Government in Exile Seems Doomed

Sunday, November 4th, 2012

Clinton’s Effort to Build a Syrian Government in Exile Seems Doomed
by Joshua Landis, Nov. 3, 2012, Syria Comment

Already the Syrian opposition’s back biting and emulous factions seem determined to sink Washington’s latest effort. Hillary Clinton is having a last go a putting together a “secularish,” upper-class leadership for the Syrian rebel effort. A swansong?

Washington’s Plan A, which was to create the SNC, went down in dust. By all accounts, Clinton cannot even stand to hear the name, SNC, uttered any longer.

Plan B was to set up the US office in Istanbul to meet and take the measure of Syrian militia leaders and local coordinating committee directors. The militia leaders scared Washington and the CIA. The word got out that they were “penetrated” by al-Qaida and Salafi types.

Plan C is now in the making. It is to return to the educated Syrians in the hope of doing a little shake-and-bake. Clinton is reconstituting some sort of US-friendly leadership drawn from elements of the old SNC with generous add-mixtures of Coordinating Committee types, some government defectors, and others who will join. It sounds as if the SNC is boycotting. Michel Kilo has said he will not join. Others are also taking a wait-and-see attitude.

The object of this exercise seems to be to glue some sort of US-friendly educated elite onto the military effort that looks too Islamist for Washington’s taste and not very human-rights observant.

But can this last minute fix possibly work?

This effort is almost identical to US and British efforts of the 1950s to stop Syria from slipping into the hands of the USSR, Nasser and the leftist Baathists.

Eisenhower and Anthony Eden did everything they could in 1956 to force Syria’s urban elites to cooperate in a pro-Western coup, but to no avail. The two largest parties in parliament – the People’s Party of Aleppo and the National Party of Damascus refused to cooperate among themselves in order to avoid revolution . Pro-Western Syrian politicians insulted and fought amongst themselves with such ferocity, that Western diplomats pulled their hair with despair as they sought to keep Syria from going “commie.”

When the coup failed, many of Syria’s leading pro-Western notables were accused of treason and fled the country. In 1957, the US sought to carry out another putsch, this time on its own. The “American coup”, as it was named, was no more successful. Some of the CIA operatives in charge of handling the Syrians are still alive. Additional Syrian politicians sympathetic to the West were forced to flee the country. Destabilized by Washington’s failed coup making, Syria announced the creation of the United Arab Republic only months later. Nasser become president and carried out wide-ranging land reform in order to destroyed the economic underpinnings of the urban notables that had allied with the West.

Today, Washington is again trying to rally the pro-Western elites of Syria into putting their shoulders to a common wheel with America. In 1957, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iraq cooperated in Washington’s efforts for regime change. Today Qatar replaces Iraq, but the line up of states helping the US in its “struggle for Syria” has hardly changed. Other aspects that have not changed are the infighting among Syria’s elites and the general resentment and distrust that Syrians share toward the US . It is hard to be optimistic.

[End]

News Round Up

Exclusive: Bashar Assad wants war not peace reveals Syria’s former prime minister Riyad Hijab
The most senior politician to defect from the Bashar al-Assad’s regime has revealed that the President repeatedly rejected calls by his own government for a political compromise, in favour of all-out war.

The most senior politician to defect from the Bashar al-Assad's regime has revealed that the President repeatedly rejected calls by his own government for a political compromise, in favour of all-out war.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (left) and former Prime Minister Riyad Hijab Photo: AFP/Getty Images
By Ruth Sherlock, Amman,04 Nov 2012

In his first full interview with a Western newspaper since he fled to Jordan in August, Riyad Hijab, the former prime minister, told The Daily Telegraph that he and other senior regime figures pleaded with Mr Assad to negotiate with the Syrian opposition.

One week before his defection, Mr Hijab, the vice-president, the parliamentary speaker and the deputy head of the Baath party together held a private meeting with Mr Assad.

“We told Bashar he needed to find a political solution to the crisis,” he said. “We said, ‘These are our people that we are killing.’

“We suggested that we work with Friends of Syria group, but he categorically refused to stop the operations or to negotiate.”

Mr Hijab referred to the war waged against the Muslim Brotherhood by Mr Assad’s father, Hafez, which led to the deaths of up to 10,000 people in an assault on the city of Hama.

“Bashar really thinks that he can settle this militarily,” he said.

“He is trying to replicate his father’s fight in the 1980s.” Mr Hijab was speaking as key anti-regime figures gathered in the Qatari capital Doha to replace the fractured opposition Syrian National Council with a new government-in-exile. Once formed, the new Council would seek to gain formal international recognition, and, crucially, better weapons.

Mr Hijab said he rejected an offer to be part of the US-backed proposal, promising to be a “soldier in this revolution without taking a political position”.

He said the lack of serious action by the West had consolidated President Assad’s confidence.

“Bashar used to be scared of the international community – he was really worried that they would impose a no-fly zone over Syria,” he said. “But then he tested the waters, and pushed and pushed and nothing happened. Now he can run air strikes and drop cluster bombs on his own population.”

Mr Assad’s acceptance of ceasefire proposals by the United Nations envoys Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi during the 19-month crisis was “just a manoeuvre to buy time for more destruction and killings”, he said.

Indeed in a speech to his cabinet Mr Assad extolled only the dictums of warfare, Mr Hijab said.

It was as he watched his leader speak – coldly, confidently and gripped by the blind conviction that only military force would crush his enemies, he said – that Mr Hijab knew he had no choice but to break away.

“My brief was to lead a national reconciliation government,” Mr Hijab said. “But in our first meeting Bashar made it clear that this was a cover. He called us his ‘War Cabinet’.” The explosion at the Damascus national security building that killed the country’s defence minister and the president’s brother-in-law marked a turning point, Mr Hijab said. After that, no holds were barred.

“The new minister of defence sent out a communiqué telling all heads in the military that they should do ‘whatever is necessary’ to win,” he said. “He gave them a carte blanche for the use of force.” In recent months the formal government had become redundant, Mr Hijab said. Real power was concentrated in the hands of a clique comprising Mr Assad, his security chiefs, relatives and friends.

Certain that he had lost all influence, and watching the tendrils of smoke rising from his home town of Deir al-Zour near the Iraqi-Syrian border after another wave of air strikes, Mr Hijab plotted his escape: “A brother spoke with one of the Free Syrian Army brigades in Damascus,” he said. “We had expected to be at the border in three hours, but it took us three days.”

Since then, the violence has worsened and new fronts have opened across the country. On Sunday a bomb exploded in the centre of Damascus, wounding 11 civilians, state television and activists reported. The blast was detonated close to the Dama Rose hotel, which hosted Mr Brahimi during his recent visit to Damascus.

Rebels also claimed to have seized an oilfield near Deir Al-Zour, while fighting continued around army and airbases west of Aleppo, which the regime have used to strike rebel-held areas in recent weeks.

Mr Hijab said the violence would continue and the regime would stay in power for as long as Russia and Iran continued to provide support. But even if they cut their allegiance, he said Mr Assad would most probably still refuse to quit.

“I am shocked to see Bashar do what he has doing,” he said. “He used to seem like a good human being, but he is worse than his father.

Hafez is a criminal for what he did in Hama, but Bashar is a criminal for what he is doing everywhere.”

Syrian opposition meeting in Qatar to broaden, unify ranks
Reuters, November 4, 2012Syrian opposition begins talks to broaden, unify ranks

* Five days of talks in Qatar try to meld disparate groups

* Major goal is to align opposition abroad with rebels in Syria

* Some analysts are sceptical of major results

By Rania El Gamal and Regan Doherty

DOHA, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Syria’s splintered opposition factions began talks in Qatar on Sunday on forging a common front for their war against the army of President Bashar al-Assad, but analysts were sceptical that the meeting would bring immediate results.

It was the first concerted attempt to meld opposition groups based abroad and align them with rebels fighting in Syria, to help end a 19-month-old conflict that has killed more than 32,000 people and devastated swathes of the major Arab country. The war threatens to widen into a regional sectarian conflagration.

Tensions between Islamists and secularists as well as between those inside Syria and opposition figures based abroad have thwarted prior attempts to forge a united opposition and analysts sounded a note of caution about the five-day talks.

One Qatar-based security analyst, who asked not to be named, said: “No one was expecting anything to be delivered despite the heavy Qatari hand on this. The Syrian National Council is just too divided. We are likely only looking at a small movement forward.”

Sunni Qatar along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey are backing the mainly Sunni rebels, while Shi’ite Iran supports Assad.

The talks in Doha are intended to win greater international support for the rebels and crucial arms supplies. One aim is to broaden the SNC, the largest of the overseas-based opposition groups, from some 300 members to 400.

Opposition leaders hoped this would pave the way to a follow-up meeting in Doha on Thursday bringing in other opposition factions with the goal of creating an anti-Assad coalition and ending months of political and personal infighting.

“The main aim is to expand the council to include more of the social and political components. There will be new forces in the SNC,” Abdulbaset Sieda, current leader of the Syrian National Council, told reporters in Doha ahead of the meeting.

He said the meetings will also elect a new executive committee and leader for the SNC, criticised in the past over perceptions of domination by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The United States called last week for an overhaul of the opposition’s leadership, saying it was time to move beyond the SNC and bring in those “in the front lines fighting and dying”.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the meeting in Qatar would be an opportunity to establish a credible opposition.

Internal feuding, a lack of cooperation between leaders abroad and fighters in Syria and the rising clout of autonomous Muslim militants in rebel ranks have deterred Western powers keen to see Assad gone from offering more than moral support.

Influential opposition figure Riad Seif has proposed a structure melding the rebel Free Syrian Army, regional military councils and other insurgent units alongside local civilian bodies and prominent opposition figures.

On Sunday, Seif said the initiative has won the backing of “12 key countries” but would not specify which ones. He said if a decision on the new leadership was made on Thursday, “maybe 100 countries will recognise this new leadership as the legitimate and only representative of the Syrians.”

Those countries would convene a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Morocco to support the new elected group, he said.

IMPROVING PITCH FOR ARMS

Western, Turkish and Arab recognition of the new opposition structure, Seif said in an interview with Reuters last week, will help channel anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to the rebels and “decide the battle”…..

Syria rebels seize oilfield, down warplane

Alawite FSA supporter whose father backs Assad tells of a Syrian family ripped apart
The National, Justin Vela, November 4, 2012

Loubna Mrie is one of the few who belong to the minority Alawite sect of Syria’s president, Bashar Al Assad, and oppose his rule.

The 21-year-old activist, from a village near Latakia, said the country’s conflict has torn her family apart. She fled to Turkey in August after hearing security forces knew about her role in smuggling bullets to the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA). En route, she was recorded talking to an FSA rebel in a video that was uploaded to YouTube. Within days, her mother was kidnapped from her home and has not been heard from since.

Ms Mrie blames her father, Jaodat Kamel Mrie, for the abduction.

“He is ready to do anything to show his loyalty to the government and Bashar Assad,” she said in an interview last week.

At the beginning of the uprising, her father, 69, a wealthy businessman, became a member of the dreaded shabiha, armed Alawite groups accused of acting as government sponsored militiamen.

Ms Mrie said he felt his financial success was due to privileges granted by the regime. He began arming unemployed Alawi men, paying them to carry out attacks, and training them.

“I am sure he is responsible for what happened to my mother,” she said.

Her decision to work against the regime came from a fierce independence her mother had instilled in her, she said. Her parents had divorced when she was in fifth grade and growing up she only saw her father a few times a week. Because so many people in Latakia, where she attended university, were pro-regime, she left for Damascus and begin assisting the FSA. [Continue reading…]

Death of monument to human history in Syria’s war-torn Aleppo
By Richard Spencer, Aleppo

The Furies have not been kind to Aleppo’s Great Mosque and Souq. In 1,300 years of history, their columns and colonnades have been consumed by fire, destroyed by earthquake, levelled by the Mongols.

Aleppo’s medieval fabric, its miles of winding markets and 1,000-year-old mosques, Koran schools and merchant houses with overhanging balconies of wood and iron latticework, is being dismantled…..

The rebels seized half of Aleppo, including parts of the Old City, in July. For weeks, they were held at bay by troops in the Citadel which, as intended by Aleppo’s first inhabitants thousands of years ago, acts as a natural raised vantage point.

But they were able to make strategic thrusts, and a month ago surged west into the oldest part of the city around the Mosque. It was during this fighting that the Souq caught light, flames roaring through the fabrics and spices, the silver and gold shops that were one of Syria’s biggest tourist draws, down the miles of arched shop fronts, stripping them of their wooden panelling to the stone and brickwork beneath.

Both sides blame each other. The rebels also claim it was a regime tank that punched man-sized holes through the walls of the haberdashery market; ash eddies in the shafts of sunlight now beaming in. …..

The souk is not beyond restoration. When that will be is less clear….Mr Khalil shook his head but also reflected that unlike the men on either side who had been killed these wonders would yet live to see another day.

“It is very bad and very sad,” he said. “But we can rebuild it, after the revolution is over.” Unesco has called on both sides to spare these “monuments to human history”. It seems neither is listening.

Amr Sherif عـمرو (@Amr5herif) /4/12, 2:20 PM

‏الشيخ كريم راجح ردًا على مَن يريد محاصصة طائفية في ‏‫#سوريا‬‏ كالتي في لبنان : لا يوجد في سوريا طائفة اسمها السنة، السنة هي الأمّة والباقي طوائف

Comments (94)

ann said:

Some shocking realties – 2012-11-05

http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=18818

In a recent visit to Paris, I had the opportunity of direct meetings with several thinkers, journalists and politicians. In this two-week visit, I had many surprises. One such surprise came in a meeting with the editor-in-chief of “Le Monde” newspaper, from listening to manner in which the well-known newspaper covers the news from Syria. In this meeting, the staff of the newspaper confirmed that the primary source of their coverage of the Syrian crisis comes from around 10 young Syrian men who, living in Paris, who follow the Syrian news on Facebook. Such an insight came with quite a shock. It is deplorable that this newspaper, which influences French public opinion and view-points elsewhere, principally gathers its news in such a manner. One can, of course, come out with two completely different opinions from any issue, not just the Syrian crisis. Indeed, anyone who uses Facebook is aware of the contradictory opinions and posts within one account, and so coming out with a conclusion requires some selectivity.

The point then is not about how to gather and present the news, but rather about the real purpose and agenda behind such processes. The case mentioned here does not relate exclusively to one news agency or newspaper, it is in fact representative of the malaise which is latent in today’s international media.

After approximately two years of spreading the news about the fall of Syria, and the level of disasters there, the world is now facing a new reality: terrorism, hate, killing, bloodshed, fear, and, above all, the risk of the wholesale destruction of the Syrian social tapestry. And all this for the sake of whom?

The culture of deception reaches far beyond the media, to include many “thinkers” and “intellectuals’’. Another shock in Paris came from meetings with some thinkers and novelists, who, shamefully, articulated an absurd vision of what the Arab world is going through. Those who confuse the concept of change with global destruction, should first learn the value of human life, and only then might they talk about saving life. When a thinker designs a rosy picture of a bitter reality to achieve a goal linked to selfish interests, this should be considered a betrayal, not only against one’s own knowledge, but also of humanity.

Take for instance the example of a well known thinker who dedicates a lot of time trying to convince young Libyans of the need to give over a huge Libyan oil company (in the presence of its general-manager). This ‘thinker’ can in fact never be considered a thinker, since this is clearly not the mandate of a thinker, but the role of a money seeker.

[…]

November 5th, 2012, 12:36 am

Divisions emerge at Syria opposition conference – November 4. 2012

Sharp disagreements arose Sunday on the first day of a Syrian opposition conference meant to forge a more cohesive leadership that the international community says is necessary before it will boost its support for those trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

The main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, balked at a U.S.-backed plan that would largely sideline it to make room in a new leadership council for fighters and activists inside Syria.

Failure to reach a deal in Doha could further heighten tensions between Syria’s political opposition and the international community. Opposition leaders feel abandoned by the U.S. and other foreign backers, saying they are not providing the money and weapons the rebels need to defeat Assad in a stalemated civil war. Washington and others say they can’t step up aid unless the opposition stops bickering and establishes a more representative — and unified — leadership.

The disagreements at the conference reinforced doubts in the opposition’s ability create a new structure the U.S. and its allies can work with. The U.S. hopes a more representative body can provide a reliable partner, buffer against interference by extremists and help bring Syria’s allies Russia and China on board with change.

However, divisions among political leaders are not the only concern.

Rebel fighters are split into small largely autonomous groups, some led by local figures little known outside Syria. Most nominally belong to the umbrella Free Syrian Army, but their ties to it are often just lip-service. In many hotspots, fighters from a radical Islamic group inspired by the al-Qaida terror network have taken on prominent roles.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/04/syria-opposition-conference/1680931/

November 5th, 2012, 12:50 am

Juergen said:

Der Spiegel in his newest edition has an interesting story on the Hassan assassination. This story was only published in the printed version. I will paragraph the facts they presented:

-Wissam al Hassan was born in Tripoli and the family had close ties to the Hariri clan, thus he became the head bodyguard of Rafiq Hariri
– it remains a big mistery why the head bodyguard was not with his employer on the fatal day of February 14th 2005, Hassan had a day off to “study” for a university degree
– apparently Saad al Hariri believed this and although the tribunal on the assassination of his father clearly had Hassan on their target list he later made him General and the chief of the intelligence services.
– the tribunal investigated and found out that on the day of the Hariri murder, Hassan made many telephone calls, even though he intended to study
-the detonation of a huge car bomb is similar to what has happend to Hariri
– Its an open question if Hassan was indeed an “double agent” for both Lebanon and Syria.
-Hassan later became the main supporter of the tribunal and contributed greatly to the investigation, he provided expertise on the used TNT and through mobile phone wiretaping 4 suspects all members of the Hisbollah movement. In 2011 the tribunal issued an warrant against Nustafa Badr ak Din, the security chief of Nasrallah. The answer of this man: “Whoever puts his hand on those four, I will cut of their hands.”
-the four suspects have disappeared, probably they fled to Iran
-Hassan was responsible for the meeting of Hariri jun and Assad
-afterwards Hariri clearly distanced himself more and more from his earlier claim that Syria was behind the bombings
– Hassan also had private talks with Assad, quite unusual for someone with his background
-at the same time he hold close relations to the Saudi security services, an enemy to Syria not just since the Arabellion
– He was probably behind the plot to expose Ali Mamluk( Assads intelligence chief). He had contacts through trusted aides and encouraged so Mamluk to hand over explosives to Michel Samah the former interiour minister.
– This move has outraged the Syrian regime tremendously, a big loss of face for Assad, and a plausible motive for an assassination of Hassan.
-may be Hisbollah had their hands in this too, since Hassan vigously had supported the tribunal, he became an enemy of Hisbollah
-2 days before his assassination he brought his family to Paris for security reasons
-1 day before his assassination he was on a stopover in Germany, and had talks with the chief of the federal police

November 5th, 2012, 12:52 am

Will Damascus Survive Washington’s Latest Attempt to Impose a Puppet Government on Syria? – November 03, 2012

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Washington needs “an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution,” (1) but fails to add that it must also be open to the United States doing the same

http://www.globalresearch.ca/will-damascus-survive-washingtons-latest-attempt-to-impose-a-puppet-government-on-syria/5310466

For weeks now, Robert Ford, the former US ambassador to Syria, has been putting together a plan to anoint a new US-approved government-in-the-wings. The initiative is known as the “Riad Seif plan” (7) named after a wealthy Damascus businessman and former Syrian parliamentarian who has long played an active role in the opposition to the Asad government. Acceptable to Washington owing to his businessman politics (as against the Ba’athist’s ideological commitment to state domination of the economy, marginalization of the private sector, and controls on foreign investment (8)), Seif has been endorsed by Washington to lead a post-Ba’athist government. It is hoped that his opposition credentials—he was jailed by the Syrian government for his activities—will put him in good stead with the rebels on the ground.

The plan calls for the creation of a “proto-parliament” comprising 50 puppets, 20 from the internal opposition, 15 from the SNC (i.e., the exile opposition), and 15 from various other Syrian opposition organizations. An executive body made up of 8 to 10 members—who have been endorsed by the US State department (9) — will work directly with the United States and its allies. (10) Washington and its subordinates, the Arab League and misnamed “Friends of Syria”, both democracy-hating clubs of plutocracies and oil monarchies, will attempt to make the body acceptable to Syrians by recognizing it as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

November 5th, 2012, 1:09 am

Russia, Arabs agree on need to move forward on Syria – Nov 05, 2012

http://www.haveeru.com.mv/world/45435

CAIRO, Nov 5, 2012 (AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Cairo on Sunday with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi for talks about the Syrian conflict, agreeing on the need to move forward but finding little common ground.

“We discussed the situation in Syria… reviewing what has been done so far and if there is any way to move forward. And let us be clear, there wasn’t any agreement on anything,” Arabi told a joint news conference.

“But we discussed all aspects of the situation. Both parties discussed the importance of moving forward. There are various ideas but nothing definite,” he added.

Lavrov stressed the need to “convince the Syrian parties to cease fire and sit down for negotiations in accordance with the Geneva agreement,” referring to a Russian-backed transition plan world powers agreed on June 30.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Lavrov was travelling to Egypt for talks about Syria with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr, although it was unclear when they would meet.

The discussions would also touch on the situation in Libya a year after the Arab Spring-inspired armed uprising that ousted the regime of former Russian ally Moamer Kadhafi, the ministry in Moscow said.

Lavrov was then scheduled to head for Jordan on Monday for talks with King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, according to Judeh.

“The Russian foreign minister is visiting Jordan tomorrow and the day after,” to discuss the Syrian crisis, Judeh told reporters after meeting his Kuwaiti counterpart in the Gulf emirate.

“Talks and dialogue with Russia must continue. It is part of the international effort to stop violence and killing in Syria,” said Judeh.

Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah, meanwhile, said that a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers and Lavrov would take place mid-November to discuss Syria, but he did not specify the location.

November 5th, 2012, 1:21 am

Citizen said:

Opposing stance: Divisions on show at Syrian opposition meeting
http://rt.com/news/syria-opposition-talks-snc-978/

November 5th, 2012, 2:13 am

Turkish police fire tear gas at hunger strike supporters
http://rt.com/news/turkey-kurds-hunger-strike-975/

November 5th, 2012, 2:15 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yj2DL1iN4
CrossTalk: Exporting Freedom or Imposing Hegemony?
Does the US have the means and moral authority to promote democracy on a global scale? Is it imposing its dominion over the world? Can the support of autocratic regimes be called democracy promotion? Why are security forces violating human rights in the name of democracy — is this right? And why should people in other countries welcome this? CrossTalking with Thomas Carothers, Charles Kupchan and John Glaser.

November 5th, 2012, 6:26 am

SYRIAN HAMSTER said:

As usual, wrong statement

Loubna Mrie is one of the few who belong to the minority Alawite sect of Syria’s president, Bashar Al Assad, and oppose his rule.

should be corrected to

Loubna Mrie is one of the few who belong to the minority Alawite sect of Syria’s president, Bashar Al Assad, and openly oppose his rule.

There are far more than “few” who oppose the fool.

November 5th, 2012, 7:45 am

Sami said:

I am not sure if this was ever shared here (its dated from June 2011) nevertheless it is extremely informative and a very good read. It covers the rise of Baath and CIA involvement in Syria. As Dr.Landis mentioned US involvement is not something new in Syria,

THE BABY AND THE BAATH WATER

What is happening in Syria feels like one of the last gasps of the age of the military dictators. An old way of running the world is still desperately trying to cling to power, but the underlying feeling in the west is that somehow Assad’s archaic and cruel military rule will inevitably collapse and Syrians will move forward into a democratic age.

That may, or may not, happen, but what is extraordinary is that we have been here before. Between 1947 and 1949 an odd group of idealists and hard realists in the American government set out to intervene in Syria. Their aim was to liberate the Syrian people from a corrupt autocratic elite – and allow true democracy to flourish. They did this because they were convinced that “the Syrian people are naturally democratic” and that all that was neccessary was to get rid of the elites – and a new world of “peace and progress” would inevitably emerge.

What resulted was a disaster, and the consequences of that disaster then led, through a weird series of bloody twists and turns, to the rise to power of the Assad family and the widescale repression in Syria today.

I thought I would tell that story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/06/the_baby_and_the_baath_water.html

November 5th, 2012, 8:31 am

Visitor said:

The quote of Sheikh Kareem Raje7h says it all in plain Arabic and we cannot agree more.

November 5th, 2012, 8:33 am

While wannabe ‘leaders’ bicker and fight in five-star hotels over positions they do not have far away from real fighing, the true builders of new Syria unite and achieve additional victories against the falling regime of criminals,

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/05/247699.html

Support FSA with all you got. Syrians do not want charities. They only need weapons to fight for their freedoms and new Syria.

No to Red Cross. No to Red Crescent. No to HCU. No to agents of ‘charity=defeat’

November 5th, 2012, 9:32 am

Uzair8 said:

Read this yesterday:

Regime confiscates assets of 20 Syrian businesspersons

The Syrian Ministry of Finance imposed assets freeze on 20 Syrian businesspersons accusing them of financing what it called “armed terrorist groups”. It also accused them of taking part in a conspiracy against the government meant to destabilize the country and instigate a civil war and a sectarian strife.

The ministry’s decrees No. 1620 and 1588 included Sumaya Hamsho, Mohammad Rabee Khayat, Mohammad Mohieddin Khayat, Khaled Mahameed, Mohammad Rahif Hakami, Waleed al-Zo’bi, Abdul-Qader Sankari, Ismael Saadi, Natheer Shaheen, Hasnaa al-Besh, Mohammad Rashad Shaheen, Lara Natheer Shaheen, Rawad Natheer Shaheen, Nagham Natheer Shaeen, Rama Natheer Shaheen, Mohammad Motaz Khayat, Alaa Khayat, Mohammad Khayat, Ramez Khayat and Ruslan Khayat.

http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/syrian-revolution-news-round-up-%d9%85%d9%84%d8%ae%d8%b5-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%ab-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ab%d9%88%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%b1-38/

annie said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20205432

A number of people have been killed in two car bomb attacks in Syria.

The first occurred outside a state-run development agency in Ziyara, a village in the central province of Hama.

The second blast left four people dead in Mezzeh 86, a predominantly pro-government district in the west of the capital, Damascus, officials said

November 5th, 2012, 10:46 am

Syrialover said:

Libya helps bankroll Syrian opposition

Excerpt from Financial Times:

The top financier of the Syrian opposition is no Arabian Peninsula oil kingdom or cloak-and-dagger western spy outfit, but struggling, war-ravaged Libya, which is itself recovering from a devastating civil conflict.

According to a budget released by the Syrian National Council and posted to its website late on Sunday, the Libyan government contributed $20.3m of the $40.4m that the opposition umbrella group has amassed since its creation in August 2011.

Qatar gave $15m while the United Arab Emirates contributed $5m, according to the document.

Unlike Qatar and the UAE, which are absolute monarchies, Libya has embarked on a rocky path towards democracy and shares an ideological vision with Syrian revolutionaries.

The SNC’s publication of its budget appeared aimed at boosting its credibility by being transparent over its financing. According to the document, the SNC still has about $10.7m in the bank.

The report breaks down expenditures by both category and geography. According to the six-page document, 11 per cent of the money collected has been spent on overheads, with the rest devoted to aiding Syrians inside the country or refugees in neighbouring states.

Roughly 7 per cent of the funds, or about $2.8m, has been allocated to the Free Syrian Army. About $290,000 has been spent on hotels for SNC representatives during travels abroad. The organisation spent about $160,000 on relief efforts for the two mostly ethnic Kurdish provinces of northwest Syria.

In an apparent attempt to shore up its status ahead of a meeting later this week to discuss the US-backed proposals, the SNC announced on Monday that it would expand its membership to include more people from inside Syria.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0897f0d0-2748-11e2-9863-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2BMbF7ZT5

November 5th, 2012, 10:57 am

SAMI #10

Fantastic read, thanks.

November 5th, 2012, 11:15 am

“According to the six-page document, 11 per cent of the money collected has been spent on overheads,”

11 percent spent on overhead? Really? For what? What product are these guys selling? And how much profit they made? Is this what you call leadership of a revolution?

These guys are simply pathetic, I mean both the SNC and the LCCB.

Support the FSA with everything you have. These are the true builders of New Syria.

Do not wait for Clinton to offer hand outs. Syrians do not want charities with strings attached.

November 5th, 2012, 11:24 am

VISITOR

11% on overheads is not high for a non-profit organization. Check it out and you’ll see.

November 5th, 2012, 11:36 am

Send your support directly to FSA for maximum benefits and rewards.

Do not use third party conduits. Cut the commissions.

To achieve liberated Syria, only FSA desreves your direct support

November 5th, 2012, 11:49 am

Scenes of terrible devastation – air strikes destroy the main square in Kafranbel, home of the brilliant and courageous poster makers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-do4UrRcuM

Weakling’s revenge by cowardly Syria-hating Bashar. Too bad pinhead Assad, they are going to keep mocking you even more.

November 5th, 2012, 11:58 am

A powerful and well-deserved damning of previously admired journalist Robert Fisk, who has been making a fool of himself over Syria.

Article: Fisk’s credibility up in ‘flares’

Excerpt:

It’s a sad thing to see one of your hero’s fall. Robert Fisk’s book Pity the Nation is one of the most impressing reads on the Middle East. His non-partisan work informed a wider public on the suffering of Lebanon and inspired a whole generation of young foreign correspondents. His courage and commitment, as well as his moral standards in those days, were unrivalled.

But those times – judging from his latest article – are over, though the signs admittedly were already showing for some time [writer gives examples].

In his latest column “The Case of the Swedish weapons in Syria”, Inspector Fisk, as he calls himself, makes a cross-the-globe investigation after a Syrian Army General presents him with a pack of flares reportedly captured from Free Syrian Army fighters.

He traces the flares to Sweden, reveals their origin (a toy firework factory) and ends on the rhetorical question, whether “Europeans [should] be a little more careful what we send to less stable parts of the world? Fewer flares, perhaps? More of those old-fashioned, battery-powered British safety lamps?”

But apart from the absurdness of the whole story, the article points to two more problematic facts. His access to high-ranking Syrian Army officers and his uncritical reporting that the weapons belonged to the FSA, show Fisk’s slightly problematic proximity to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/BlogDetails.aspx?TID=2755&FID=6

November 5th, 2012, 12:14 pm

HAMSTER #9

Good catch!

November 5th, 2012, 12:33 pm

FSA deserves full direct support from all capable Syrians.

Fifty criminal thugs were eliminated today in 7hama in one single operation, by none other than the FSA.

Send your support directly to FSA. Cut the commissions and ensure maximum benefits.

November 5th, 2012, 12:58 pm

Tara said:

Are we going to see a new trend now where not only Sunnis are being killed but Alawis too? Has time come for the sect to start paying heavily for stupidly backing Batta to hold on the chair?
—
• Eleven people have been killed and 55 injured, including women and children, by a car bomb in a loyalist are of Mezzeh, Damascus, state media reported. Activists claim the Free Syrian Army said it planted the bomb and was targeting shabiha – pro-Assad thugs – in the area.

November 5th, 2012, 1:04 pm

I understand Global Reasearch (GR)is an unreliable source. It seems to be Russian. Is there any damning information on this organisation? Is it on par with Thiery Meyssan and his Voltaire Network ( Syrian funded)?

I’ve seen GR articles presented which are pro-Assad. A recent one made some seemingly absurd claims regarding Libya:

Who pocketed Gaddafi’s billions?
November 03, 2012
by Andrei Ontikov

NATO’s military campaign in Libya is remarkable, among other things, for the following two reasons.

First – the damage that the air raids by the Western anti-Gaddafi alliance caused to Libya is estimated to be 7 times bigger than the damage which bombing by the Nazis caused in Europe during WWII.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-pocketed-gaddafis-billions/5310459

November 5th, 2012, 1:05 pm

I was going to say on here that exhausted regime troops are probably not much more than cannon fodder and then I came across the following tweet:

PeterClifford1
#Syria Anonymous #Iraq source claims that exhausted #Assad army “on the brink of collapse”: http://tinyurl.com/PCOSyria

http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/peterclifford1-syria-anonymous-iraq-source-claims-that-exhausted/

November 5th, 2012, 1:21 pm

Johannes de Silentio said:

12 VAT

“wannabe ‘leaders’ bicker and fight in five-star hotels”

It’s three star. They don’t have the bucks for five star. Stay classy as always, VATTY.

November 5th, 2012, 1:29 pm

This isn’t a tsunami or a hurricane. This is the sky over Aleppo this morning.

http://twitter.com/NMSyria/status/265311278996807681/photo/1

November 5th, 2012, 2:25 pm

5 dancing shlomos said:

non syrians building a syrian govt in exile.

go home and stir the mush inside your skulls. fools led by fools manipulated by fools.

the puppet terrorists are like bleeding rats. they will eat themselves.

the zionized west and israel are running scared, talking scared like trapped rats.

the legitimate govt of syria in place in damascus remains. and will remain.

November 5th, 2012, 2:35 pm

An update from under an hour ago. It drew some response (comments).

HasanSari7
BRK: Syrian Republican Guards force operating in Homs withdraw from the city heading to Damascus.#syria

http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/hasansari7-brk-syrian-republican-guards-force-operating-in/

November 5th, 2012, 2:42 pm

It seems that the charlatans seeking money on this blog!

November 5th, 2012, 3:32 pm

CIA!
http://newpowerleadinglight.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/tumblr_m7fa7tntbz1qap9gno1_1280.jpg?w=620

November 5th, 2012, 3:35 pm

Report: Benghazi Consulate was Mainly CIA Operation
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/59148-report-benghazi-consulate-was-mainly-cia-operation
——————
McCain on CIA’s Benghazi attack timeline: “It’s a cover-up”
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/20003044/2012/11/05/mccain-cia-timeline
——————
WORLD: In Benghazi timeline, CIA errors but no evidence of conspiracy
http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2012/11/05/news/doc5093bead3674b189357407.txt

November 5th, 2012, 3:46 pm

where did libya’s billions go? who are the thieves?
being russian, syrian funded gives legitimacy compared to being amurderkan, zionized west funded.

thierry meyssan is generally excellent.
beyond outstanding compared to jew stream media reporting which are lies, deceptions, distortions, propaganda.

November 5th, 2012, 4:06 pm

A Catalogue of Failures in Syria Interventions
Joshua Landis – who was consistently against US intervention in Syria before he was for sending in heavy weapons to rebels – writes that the Obama administration’s latest effort to set up a new council of Syrian opposition leaders to organize the country towards regime change and to serve as part of a post-Assad interim government “seems doomed.”

And Plan C, Landis writes, “is now in the making,” as the State Department tries again to meddle in Syria to produce a post-Assad ruling coalition Washington approves of. But this effort seems doomed for failure too, not only like its two predecessors (see plans A and B), but like Washington’s past interventions in Syria aimed at choosing who would rule:
This effort is almost identical to US and British efforts of the 1950s to stop Syria from slipping into the hands of the USSR, Nasser and the leftist Baathists.

Another option is to recognize that Washington lacks both the ability and the right to tinker in the affairs of Syria. How many past failures have to bear this out for people to simply acknowledge the fact?
http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/11/05/a-catalogue-of-failures-in-syria-interventions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AWCBlog+%28Antiwar.com+Blog%29

November 5th, 2012, 4:08 pm

Bashar Assad doesn’t inspire confidence.

The regime and it’s supporters are missing an inspirational leader. Someone to put faith and confidence in. To rally around.

What has Bashar ever done? At least his father was a military man who rose through the ranks. Someone who participated and oversaw a couple of coups. Someone who in the eyes of his supporters had real achievements to his name. Hafez Assad steered his regime through 3 decades.

Bashar Assad is not the right man for the regime and it’s supporters in their hour of need. He’d find it hard to convince anyone if he promised victory. He looks like a youth when a tough father figure is required.

He is nowhere to be seen.

November 5th, 2012, 4:14 pm

William Jones, Turkey strategy in Syria backfires

November 5th, 2012, 4:44 pm

Why is the media not telling this? USA was selling arms to Syria. US are on the wrong side of history!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0EfXnSFVfc
US Stinger missiles now in the hands of rebels !!! nightmare

November 5th, 2012, 5:53 pm

Turkey became part of Syria crisis: CHP
Turkey’s main opposition party criticized Turkey’s foreign policy on Syria, saying that Ankara cannot manage the crisis in light of the United States’ request for an overhaul of the Syrian National Council (SNC).

Harshly critical of the policies of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy chairman Faruk Loğoğlu said the policies “defused Turkey on Syria” and “made [Turkey] one of the elements of the crisis instead of managing it.”

Citing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s charge that the SNC was not representative, Washington’s move rendered the Justice and Development Party (AKP) inactive concerning its neighbor Syria, Loğoğlu said in a written statement yesterday.

“The AKP brought Turkey to a position in which it has been left alone by its allies, which takes a stand against Iran, Russia, China, Iraq, Egypt and some groups in Lebanon, leaving the destiny of the [Syrian] process to Qatar,” Loğoğlu said. “The next threat may be Turkey giving weight to the Free Syrian Army as a reaction to the cutting out of the SNC, so it may intervene more in clashes in the neighboring country, which may result in bigger mistakes.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-became-part-of-syria-crisis-chp.aspx?pageID=238&nID=34025&NewsCatID=338

November 5th, 2012, 5:57 pm

Syrian Arab Army has fired and hit an israeli military vehicle in Occupied Golan after it threatened to attack the Syrian tanks

November 5th, 2012, 6:10 pm

revenire said:

The US efforts were doomed even before they started anew.

November 5th, 2012, 6:28 pm

Kafranbel:

https://www.adoptrevolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tumblr_lqjnjduVdJ1r1y5xmo1_1280.jpg

https://www.adoptrevolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Kafranbel2408.jpg

Citizen

Sounds either like Radio Yerewan or the hakawati from the Naufara Coffee shop has a new topic.

November 5th, 2012, 6:37 pm

ghufran said:

The undeniable truth is that you can not defeat an army or topple a regime by using car bombs, those bombs are doing the same thing as the air raids on populated areas: they hurt the bomber more than the bomber’s enemy. Another problem with those bombs is that they end any chance of the opposition playing David, people now see a lot of Goliaths but no Davids, that can hurt the regime but it hurts the opposition more, after all we were supposed to support the opposition as an alternative to a brutal and merciless regime,very few can now call the armed rebels less brutal or more merciless.
A third problem is the fate of innocent victims who ere killed by the regime. when scores of civilians are killed by two unforgiving and lawless parties, victims may never receive proper compensation and perpetrators may never see justice. Those of you who are still defending the use of car bombs should bury their head in the nearest toilet.

November 5th, 2012, 6:49 pm

Ali said:

Would anybody tell me why the opposition is so keen to turn the Palestinians against them?

shelling Yarmouk camp with mortars is not how you persuade or win a sect to your side!!

November 5th, 2012, 6:57 pm

Uzair.

I am reading an blog run by a german teacher and her syrian husband, usually they had the strongest words to defend Assad. For me it was always like watching an old DDR tv show which was quite famous for its wickedness in portraying the arrogance of the imperialistic world. Now, these days there is harsh criticism on Bashar al Wahash and the regime in total, for them he is not showing himself enough and he is not leading the country against those “terrorists”. I think even the most loyal Basharmaniacs will have a hard time finding facts to gather in support of this bastard. You know those folks will soon enough see what their ignorance has created. Funny enough this couple has found the right name for their site, Sarsura Syria, which would mean cockroach Syria.

November 5th, 2012, 7:01 pm

Jarthouma said:

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear……

It seems that the sectarian Alawites are in for a wonderful few more months. Despite all this blah blah about stalemate let us look at the military trajectory

A-Small FSA groups protecting demonstrators that respond to security forces. The security forces are starting to get overwhelmed so they bring in his so called Army in a more alarming way

B-The Army gets more involved. (( Despite what people say about the 4th division and the Presidential Guard (that is still kept largely as a last line of defense in Damascus) )). Therefore a significant number of units that involve sectarian psychopathic Alawite officers and Sunni conscripts. The “Army” start to fragment along sectarian lines ; soldiers fleeing, not responding to conscription or joining the growing the rebel movement.

3-As the rebel movements grow naturally and in many cases independently in each area, they start to gain enough strength with enough small arms to attack security and Army checkpoints. These currently do not have heavy armor spread throughout and are overrun in many cases

4-This results in temporary liberated areas, forcing Assad to bring in even more heavy armor in urban warfare. He starts to lose tanks significantly and his troops start to get bogged down. He withdraws to troops to heavily protected bases. Bab 3umar was one typical useless victory where his Assadist troops lost over 800 troops for an empty victory. It was more of a propaganda victory and nothing more. This is what you get with sectarian planning. Even cold calculated military tactics are thrown out of the window. If Assad kept doing that his Army would be wiped out quickly (currently the rate of decay would give him about 4 more years at most, that is if he keeps his supply lines of course lol! and does not end up with FSA controlled buffer zones). You have temporary set backs for the rebels and they withdraw and attack, withdraw and attack.

5-He then relies on artillery barrages from a distance to clear urban areas. This is followed by tanks that move in with small groups of troops, to allow the positioning of snipers. Once set up they clear the area for military incursions. Airpower is now being used

6-He keeps doing this but ends up eventually without enough manpower to capture areas that are retaken. He also has concentrated forces now in main bases in the cities and in major checkpoints

7-The FSA has far more liberated areas in the rural regions around the cities and the numbers exponentially increase. They then flood cities like Aleppo and have somewhat of a supply line

8-An initial stalemate ensues. This time though, the FSA hold ground in the second major city for months (something that would be unheard of only a couple of months before). The FSA still do not have heavy weapons to tackle planes and major bases.

9-It therefore becomes a war of supply lines and choke points around major bases. Airbases start to get attacked

10-The FSA start to make major gains along this line and eventually get into a major base or so. Heavy weapons are getting captured.

11-Heavy weapons are regularly being used now, planes and helicopters are falling and heavy bases are starting to fall. You start to hear of liberated cities that have a reasonable chance of remaining so i.e. Ma’raat al Numan.

12-Heavy weapons will start to eventually spread exponentially and the rebels get more proficient in using them.

We are now getting to this stage. This means and I predict, that the major bases in Aleppo will fall because of a lack of supplies and major incursions. Aleppo cannot hold for another year. The regime will have to withdraw. He will rely much less on helicopters as well because of wear and tear. Once that happens, the Assad militia will fragment quickly in Northern Syria.

Assad will concentrate in certain districts of Homs, Damascus and Dera’a. The FSA in the north will for the first time properly connect with the FSA in Hama. Homs will be threatened.

He is forced to bring back up units from Damascus to Homs. At the same time his hold in Dera’a and rural Damascus is getting weaker and weaker. Now he is forced to deploy significantly his presidential guard and the remaining fourth division.

Damascus the city is going to become another Halab. Mezze 86 knows this lol!

The irony is that his forces will be forced into a Bab Umar scenario in districts in Damascus as he makes his last stand. Interestingly as his sectarian Alawite mugs make their last stand while he flies to Iran !

November 5th, 2012, 7:16 pm

The unabated killing of the Syrian people by Batta is made possible by Mr. Obama and company. Batta tested the water and easily found out that yes, he is allowed to kill in any way he sees fit except through chemical weapons. The world decided syrians’ throats can be slashed, they can be burned alive, they can be bludgeoned to death, etc.. They however, can’t die from inhaling chemical smoke and Obsma should be tainted by Syrian blood forever.

Hijab: ‘Bashar thinks he can settle this militarily’
In an interview with the Telegraph, Riyad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister, claims that Bashar al-Assad has no interest in a peaceful resolution to the crisis (thanks to sjxt btl for highlighting this). Hijab said:

Bashar really thinks that he can settle this militarily … Bashar used to be scared of the international community – he was really worried that they would impose a no-fly zone over Syria. But then he tested the waters, and pushed and pushed and nothing happened. Now he can run air strikes and drop cluster bombs on his own population … My brief was to lead a national reconciliation government. But in our first meeting Bashar made it clear that this was a cover. He called us his ‘war cabinet’.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/05/syria-crisis-sharp-disagreements-opposition-conference-live#block-509794e2b579f74bac764ad1

November 5th, 2012, 7:24 pm

ALI said:

Syria needs its own version of Al-Taif Agreement, we might end up calling it something like Qahira Agreement or maybe Moscow Agreement

Such an agreement should cover the following:

1- The ending of the Syrian Civil War
2- The disarmament of all national and non national militias
3- The principle of “mutual coexistence” between Syria’s different sects and their proper political representation
4- Political reform
5- Post-civil war parliamentary electoral laws
6- Transferring some of the power away from the president to government

The question is whether the slaves of (Gulf, NATO, Iran and Russia) are ready to stop this madness?

November 5th, 2012, 7:35 pm

UZAIR8 #36

Hang on, you’ve skipped a step or two. But you’re spot on to mock the regime enablers – every single lice-ridden rat in that nest.

1. A dictator inheriting power by birth from his father is not a “leader” issue – it’s just continuing illegitimate control by the gun. A particularly primitive and absurd situation in the 21st century.

2. Bashar the kid was unqualified, unsuited and incapable of being a “leader” of anything – he wouldn’t even make mayor of a tiny village if he had to compete for the role. Just look at him.

3. Choosing to appoint him was a lazy, greedy and stupid betrayal of Syria by those rats who had made nests for themselves inside the Assad bunker under Hafez.

Many saw but denied that Bashar’s appointment was nonesense, unsustainable and pre-destined to end in catastrophe. Anything fought out in 2000 would not have been as bad as what’s happening now.

Yet the idiots at the centre were comfortable creating that junk house of cards when they hoisted him onto the stolen throne with Maher on his shoulder in 2000; then they then turned around and did it again in 2007.

They are all traitors with the souls of dictators. They gave an idiot kid the keys to the armoury and matches and stoked his delusions.

So no, that rubbish-filled nest of weak, self-serving rats around Assad won’t have any potential “leaders” ready to crawl out.

November 5th, 2012, 7:38 pm

Roland said:

Re: the ex-PM defector. What other sort of line could he take? What else could he say? Could he defect, and then admit that Bashar was actually trying to find a compromise? Of course he could never say anything like that–it would not make him look ridiculous.

Was the ex-PM supposed to be strictly honest, and state that he was merely hoping to save his own neck (and perhaps also his overseas bank accounts) in case the Western Bloc did decide to impose a new government upon Syria? Could he ever admit that it might have been him, not Bashar, who was most frightened of foreign intervention? Of course a defector can’t say anything like that, either, since it would make him look like a coward.

Or perhaps high-level defectors get handed their scripts by their foreign hosts? It is reasonable, of course, that the foreigners would demand that all high-level defectors burn their boats by slandering those to whom they once owed allegiance.

Doesn’t the man realize that if the foreigners ever feel the need, that they’ll drag him off to the ICC later, on some pretext or another, no matter what he does or says? Has he not yet learned the fickle and treacherous nature of the neoliberal “humanitarian interventionists” found in today’s Western Bloc?

November 5th, 2012, 7:58 pm

TARA #45

Like you I was frustrated beyond bearing that the west didn’t physically sort Bashar out.

However, remember Riyad Hijab’s narrative has two key points, both sounding true, but with one completely cancelling out the other.

1. Bashar might have been wetting his diaper at the thought of trouble from the international community, but

2. when that problem started to materialise, in rushed the biggest schoolyard thugs and bullies to stand guard at Bashar’s playpen, encourage him and make sure he had what he needed to feel secure to continue his rampage.

So it wasn’t that simple.

You live in the west – if you have any contacts in government policy circles, ask them about the impact on their decisions of the UN impasse and Russia and Iran’s trumpeted intervention (intervention which had little to do with Syria per se, but more to do with Putin’s and the Mullahs personal stance on the west).

November 5th, 2012, 8:14 pm

habib said:

44. Jarthouma

Lol at “sectarian Alawites”.

The hairy Salafis now not only have Alawites, secular Sunnis, Socialist Palestinians and so on to worry about, they now have to watch out for the Kurds too.

Which parts of the Syrian population have they not yet alienated? Apart from other dirty Salafis, of course.

November 5th, 2012, 8:17 pm

Citizen = Ann = Quack

If you haven’t noticed, Citizen’s only original comments are single sentence paragraphs,

Everything else is copy and paste from links. Ann does the same and so do quacks.

But he/she nevertheless has great ‘pride’ in his/her quackish Sunnism.

November 5th, 2012, 8:56 pm

I am against bombing Mazze 86. Not all Alawites should be assumed to be pro-regime and not all pro-regime should be assumed to be shabeehas. Bombing alawite areas indiscriminately make the bombers no different than the thug regime they are fighting.

29. 5 Dancing Shlomos:

“the zionized west and israel are running scared”

Good to see you back, Shlomie. Hope the doctors gave you a clean bill of health. And don’t worry about that rape charge with the Philippino cleaning lady. Some of your Salafi “friends” had a little chat with her. She’ll drop charges.

While you were away, there have been some big changes in the World. First, the West is no longer zionized. There was a vote and the West agreed to drop the “z” and now refers to itself as “ionized.” Secondly, Israel has been destroyed. There was a war with Iran and the Iranians dropped a nuclear bomb. Actually they missed their target and hit Jordan, but the bomb was so powerful, it wiped out Israel as well.

Hope this finds you in good health.

November 5th, 2012, 9:09 pm

Sibylle said:

I don’t really understand why weirdos here support the dictatorship in Syria. How is 50 years of family rule legitimate?
Are we supposed to believe that the disgusting commies from China and KGB are on the right side of history here?

November 5th, 2012, 9:20 pm

first they destroyed Iraq then they want to get paid to rebuild what they destroyed:
Former prime minister Tony Blair warns of a danger that UK companies will lose out to European competitors in rebuilding Iraq. Speaking at a conference in central London, Blair claims Iraq is ‘set to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world’ over the next decade, noting that last month’s oil exports of Iraq surpassed that of Iran over the same period

November 5th, 2012, 11:26 pm

zoo said:

Ghufran

That’s what the West are really interested in: rescueing their crumbling economy by encouraging and financing poor Arab countries to destroy each other countries as well as their ‘old’ cultural heritage and later to call the West with oil Arab financing to rebuild them with modern malls, fancy shops and cafes and highways.
It happened in Lebanon, soon in Iraq, later in Syria.

November 5th, 2012, 11:35 pm

7hamas finally decided to ditch the so-called ‘resistance brothers’ once and for all,

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/06/247877.html

So, What’s up?

November 5th, 2012, 11:38 pm

sheikh Zayn Eddin:

ليس للدروز مصلحة في دخول الثورة إلى مناطقهم، إضافة إلى انه لم يبق أي منطقة آمنة في سورية إلا المناطق الدرزية، والدروز في سورية، وفي خارج سورية ليس لديهم مشروع إلاّ مشروع الوطن الذي يقيمون فيه، وهم لن يزجوا بأنفسهم في اي صراع داخلي مهما كانت الظروف إلاّ إذا كان هناك خطر قادم على البلد، وعلى مصيرهم، والتاريخ يشهد أنهم لم يتأخروا يوما عن محاربة الغزاة من إبراهيم باشا المصري الذي حاول دخول جبل العرب، وقاتلوا العثمانيين، وأطلقوا شرارة الثورة السورية الكبرى بقيادة سلطان باشا الأطرش، وللتاريخ أيضا عندما حاول اديب الشيشكلي دخول جبل العرب بالقوة رفض سلطان باشا الأطرش مقاومة الجيش العربي السوري لأن الدروز يابوا تدمير بلدهم، ومؤسساتهم، وفضّل الخروج من سورية نحو الأردن، ولم يعود إلا حين خرج الشيشكلي من الحكم.

November 6th, 2012, 12:09 am

55. Visitor

So they could join the Zionist endorsed, Gulf sponsored “moderate Arab” fold. Great, huh?

The Palestinians are fucked now. First the Zionists bought Fatah, now the Gulf is buying Hamas. At least the Palestinians are united under Zion now…

Soon Palestine will be a Bible theme park.

November 6th, 2012, 12:56 am

MarigoldRan said:

Clinton’s efforts are doomed because Syria’s not going to have a government for the next 30 years.

Assad’s an idiot. I think even supporters of the regime can agree to that statement. Two years ago, he was unchallenged. Now, look at his rule.

November 6th, 2012, 1:32 am

25. Uzair8 said:

“I understand Global Reasearch (GR)is an unreliable source. It seems to be Russian. Is there any damning information on this organisation? Is it on par with Thiery Meyssan and his Voltaire Network ( Syrian funded)?”

I think GR is only anti-imperialist, to wit this piece written by

Dr. Chossudovsky (is not Russian but Canadian) about Syria http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-who-is-behind-the-protest-movement-fabricating-a-pretext-for-a-us-nato-humanitarian-intervention/24591

November 6th, 2012, 3:39 am

The difference between Western news sources and Russian and Syrian news sources is that the Western media is biased, but the Russian and the Syrian media tell blatant lies.

Say what you want about CNN, but at least their reporters try to get at the truth. Syrian and Russian reporters are merely government mouthpieces who get arrested if they don’t toe the line. As a result they spew all sorts of silly, unbelievable crap that destroys their credibility.

Alternative news media that complain about mainstream Western media miss the point. They can diss Western media all they want, but they themselves are not any better. In fact, they’re significantly worse.

November 6th, 2012, 4:22 am

Complain all you want about the Sunnis and the rebels, but no one has yet made a convincing argument as to why Assad should stay in power. I mean, even the commentators who hate the rebels can’t think of anything positive to say about Assad’s regime.

That’s why the regime ultimately is doomed. It has no future.

November 6th, 2012, 4:27 am

Come on, some things are getting even more wobbly and confused here than usual.

Are we to see it as an immense failure and scandal in the world that Iraq will have sufficient funds to call in global tenders to rebuild it? (Ghufran #53).

I’m not even sure if would be actually re-building, it would be more like first-time development. After all, the main capital projects in the Saddam era were his palaces, there was little urban planning and development, and chronic underdevelopment of the oil production and refining infrastructure.

And then we are told that the west is systematically working on getting poor Arab countries to self-destruct so they can then rescue their own crumbling economies through winning tenders to rebuild those ruined countries i.e. Syria (Zoo #54).

The way the alleged prize is presented, one imagines the writer must have something in mind on the scale of post-war reconstruction of Germany and Japan.

Don’t we wish! Even before the country was bankrupted and trashed and the funds may have been there, the Assads never saw the point of anything beyond limited, cheap and small scale construction and infrastructure projects. But the writer sees fancy malls and highways as inevitable in the aftermath of his hero Assad. Very confusing.

November 6th, 2012, 7:43 am

MARIGOLDRAN,

You’re on fire writing about the Western news media Vs the Russian and Syian news media. Then you make some punchy statements about Assad.

You’re right,I thought, so right.

But then you toss around ash and mud with the words: “Clinton’s efforts are doomed because Syria’s not going to have a government for the next 30 years” (#58)

You’re wrong, I thought, so wrong.

November 6th, 2012, 7:56 am

Cocky Habib@57,

I think it is the other way around Mr. Cock. To use ur own words, it is the so-called ‘resistance gang’ that is f***ked and really bad.

November 6th, 2012, 8:23 am

Today seven Generals decided to repent from life of crime and seek forgiveness,

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/9add0d8d-124b-4e96-8e41-43915ea3972c?GoogleStatID=9

If you are a thug in the Assadist army, you should ask yourself the question: how long the door of repentance will remain open? It may be just a little bit too late for you when you finally decide to become a non-thug good Syrian!

November 6th, 2012, 8:26 am

Baran said:

SC is becoming Syrialover’s comment. Syrialover: can you stop commenting on all the comments.

November 6th, 2012, 8:28 am

The ever barking Lavrov is finally down on his knees seeking forgiveness from his Arab superiors,

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/06/247942.html

November 6th, 2012, 8:39 am

Ziad said:

THE EMPIRE ADDRESSES ITS SYRIAN SUBJECTS

Gone are the days when US administrations used to cloak their directives with the third person narrator voice and their injunctions in a passive prescriptive tone: ”X should do this”, “y needs to do that”, “there must be z” etc. Gone too are the pretenses of the Syrian opposition’s autonomy, independent decision-making and by implication, popular legitimacy. Now, the US has abandoned all diplotalk and concerns for the Syrian opposition’s public image in favour of a first person narrator voice and an active prescriptive tone that closely resembles that of colonial administrator. Earlier this week, Hilary Clinton announced the birth of a new opposition coalition — the Syrian National Initiative (SNI)— that is to supersede the SNC, in language that can only be described as that of High Commissioner for the Syrian opposition:

“And we also need an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution,” she said.

We have recommended names and organizations that we believe should be included in any leadership structure,” she told a news conference.

“We’ve made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice which must be heard.”

As the references above demonstrate, the US boldly asserts what its “ needs” in Syria are, “recommends [Syrian] names”, “makes things clear” to its clients, deciding what they “can be part of”, and judging whose voice is “legitimate”.

Yet in an audacious denial of reality, former SNC spokeswoman, Basma Kodmani declared that

“it was wrong to suggest that the US or any other government was involved in selecting the new council… She said: “Foreign powers have not been involved in nominations. The authority would selected by Syrians. It is a completely Syrian process. Names have not been designated, only groups and organisation which should be represented have been proposed.”

This despite Clinton’s reference to both “names and organizations” which Washington recommended.

More ironic still, is Riad Seif’s blueprint document for the SNI which clings to the self-delusion of “Preserving the national sovereignty and independence of Syrian decisions”.

A US official who spoke to Foreign Policy would beg to differ with the SNI’s self-professed autonomy : “We need to be clear: This is what the Americans support, and if you want to work with us you are going to work with this plan and you’re going to do this now. We aren’t going to waste anymore time.”

In the final analysis, Clinton’s message can hardly be considered insensitive when neither the Syrian opposition nor its supporters appear deterred by the Zionist proclivities of some of their members, let alone by such passé considerations as the imperious tone of their American masters. Such are the priorities of those who see authoritarianism as the new imperialism.

http://resistance-episteme.tumblr.com/post/34854421474/the-empire-addresses-its-syrian-subjects

November 6th, 2012, 10:06 am

#43 & #46 Juergen & SyriaLover

It’s one big reason to suggest why the regime will not win.

November 6th, 2012, 10:30 am

#59 Annie

Thanks. I do remember reading about GR and it being canadian. I can’t remember where. I’m sure it was mentioned (mocked) in an opinion piece on somewhere like Al Akhbar.

November 6th, 2012, 10:35 am

مجموعة مسلحة أقدمت، يوم الثلاثاء، على قتل الدكتور محمد أسامة اللحام شقيق رئيس مجلس الشعب في منطقة الثريا في الميدان بدمشق.
“إرهابيين ترصدوا الدكتور اللحام وأطلقوا النار عليه في سيارته خلال توجهه إلى عمله ما أدى إلى استشهاده على الفور”.
يشار الى ان الدكتور اللحام يحمل دكتوراه في الزراعة
those assassinations,like it or not, do not provide hope for either the opposition or the country, no rebel group in modern history succeeded by using car bombs and assassinations, these two methods fail because they usually indicate lack of vision and public support.

November 6th, 2012, 11:05 am

Yasser Haidar Kizbari son of former Syrian Prime Minister and an accomplished Captain was killed by a regime sniper yesterday close to Harasta.

http://all4syria.info/Archive/58518

He will be missed…

November 6th, 2012, 11:14 am

How laughable for a thug apologist to call the killing of a thug servant a martyr as in comment 70?

I would say it is quite laughable.

To hell with him and his likes and good riddance.

How is your BMS Ghoofie?

———————————–

Why does everybody want to save a criminal?

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/06/248013.html

Since the world has done very little to save the thousands of Syrians who were massacred by this thug they are trying to save, the world should leave it to the Syrian people to exact justice. Hands off Mr. cameron.

November 6th, 2012, 11:25 am

Habib, clearly you like to delude yourself.

Does it help you that you have the waivering support of some PKK militia ? In your eyes that equates to the whole Kurdish population!! Lol! Idiot!

Does it help you that you have the support of a mad Palestinian warlord Ahmad Jibril ? Well done that equates to the whole Palestinian population lol! Idiot !

There you go Sectarian Alawite Mezza 86 demographics!

Presto Aleppo is liberated by the duck….,

I mean how that really makes you feel better is beyond me. Are you in the denial stage at the moment ? I wonder how long before you are on Prozac

November 6th, 2012, 12:16 pm

hhassan140
RT “@ZeinakhodrAljaz: #Russia Foreign Minister Lavrov said #Syria rebels have obtained 50 Stinger shoulder-launched missiles”

http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/hhassan140-rt-zeinakhodraljaz-russia-foreign-minister-lavrov/

________________________________

Today 2 planes have been shot down in Idlib, 1 plane in Al Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor. A mig 23 was shot near Anjara in Aleppo RIF. Another one in Jpb Khashbet in Aleppo RIF

http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/today-2-planes-have-been-shot-down-in/

November 6th, 2012, 12:55 pm

Like a previous user said I too feel Aleppo is going to fall.

The Tawheed Brigade are a very determined bunch who will come at the regime forces again and again. Like in Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).

November 6th, 2012, 1:03 pm

visitor said:

Uzair 75 said,

“Like a previous user said I too feel Aleppo is going to fall.”

The right way to say it in my opinion is:

Like a previous user said I too feel Aleppo is going to be liberated.

November 6th, 2012, 1:12 pm

Dolly Buster said:

I wonder why the White House isn’t taking Syria more seriously. Iran is the biggest enemy of the U.S, and Russia is also a nuisance to the free world. By toppling the Baath dictatorship, the U.S. would damage both of those foes. Yet Washington hasn’t been very active in helping Syrians militarily. I hope that the reason for this lack of help, is that experienced diplomats in D.C. have decided that the civil war will end favorably anyway.

November 6th, 2012, 1:24 pm

Dolly Buster 77,

FYI the US has been taken over by the worldwide leftist plot. You will find many members of these conspirators among the contributors to this blog.

A sigh of relief for meeting a rare guardian.

November 6th, 2012, 2:13 pm

Saudi Gangnam style

November 6th, 2012, 2:44 pm

It took Lebanon 15 years to be put together. Syria’s more than twice as big. Hence the 30-year approximation. I could be wrong though. Hopefully I am wrong. But…. it ain’t looking good right now.

The issue is not Assad. He should fall within the next five years, max. The difficulty is the power struggle afterwards. Those suicide bombers Al Nusra is throwing at the regime (with effect)? They can be used on other targets too, like the Kurds, or other rebels who don’t agree with them.

The only thing keeping the rebels together is a common enemy. Just look at the fiasco of the SNC.

Two MIGS got shot down? Ooooo. Show me the videos.

To Dolly:

The White House is taking Syria pretty seriously. Of the last 50 or so news headlines involving Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, more than half of them are about her discussing Syria. The issue is not about whether the administration is serious. The problem for the administration is this: does America want to get involved in this mess?

The last time America got seriously involved in the Middle East, the result was Afghanistan and Iraq. Does America want a repeat? Also, some of the rebels fighting against Assad also fought against the Americans in Iraq. Hence the hesitation.

Syrians cheered when 9/11 happened. The State Department and the career bureaucrats in the American government have a long memory.

November 6th, 2012, 2:45 pm

Israeli Government threatens military intervention to Syria
06.11.2012
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/06-11-2012/122720-israel_war-0/
The Chief of staff of the army for the defence of Israel, General Benny Gantz, visited the Golan Heights region and pointed out that the operations of the Syrian forces against armed groups could lead to military interference with the Israeli regime. The Israeli regime threatened, this Sunday, to pursue a military intervention in Syria.
The Israeli regime threatened, this Sunday, to pursue a military intervention in Syria, when three Syrian tanks penetrated the demilitarized zone of the Golan Heights Plateau, with the aim of attacking armed terrorist groups that headed in the direction of Israel to seek refuge and escape the justice of Damascus.

“The Syrian conflict can pass into the territory of Israel, but in this case the Israeli army will oppose it with all of its military might,” stressed Gantz, then added that “any attempt to get Israel caught in the internal conflict of Syria is destined to failure.”

He also referred to alleged clashes that are developing between forces of the Syrian Government and armed terrorists in this region.

“The 36th Division is ready at any time in which the fire changes direction and comes to us,” Gantz said.

With respect to the incursion of three Syrian army tanks into the Golan Heights, he stressed that “the Israeli army has instructions to be kept on alert in that area”.

Syrian tanks that entered the demilitarized zone on Saturday still have not left the area. Tel Aviv sent a complaint for the examination of the Commander of the United Nations (UN) forces in the the region of the Golan Heights.

For its part, Lebanese sources reported that this Sunday, Israeli military helicopters flew over the occupied region of the Golan Heights and the occupied Shab’a farmlands, in the South of Lebanon.

In 1967, the Israeli regime occupied the Golan Heights, during the so-called Six-Day War, in order to have access to the Sea of Galilee, a main source of fresh water for the Israelis. In 1981 it incorporated it into its territory (North), by imposing its legal, administrative and judicial system and offering the inhabitants Israeli citizenship.

In December 1981, Resolution 497 of the UN Security Council declared that the Israeli decision was “null and void.” Today there is a strip of territory administered by the United Nations that separates the contenders who still compete for possession, amid a precarious peace.

The whole area of 1,860 square kilometers in which prior to 1967 more than 150,000 Syrians lived, was devastated, and at present there are little more than 30,000 inhabitants remaining.

Ed. Two interesting points is that the UN declaired the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights illegal and “without international legal effect” (section 1). Therefore, they have no right to take any action against Syria on legal Syrian territory.

The second point is that armed terrorists were fleeing TO Israel, which implies foreknowledge that they would be not only protected there, but also that they are serving the interests of the State of Israel to destabilize the Syrian government.

November 6th, 2012, 4:08 pm

killing people as a way to deliver freedom to them:
هزت ثلاثة انفجارات ضخمة بعد ظهر اليوم الثلاثاء حي الورود الواقع بين منطقتي دمر بلد وقدسيا بريف دمشق اسفرت عن سقوط عدد كبير من القتلى والجرحى.
وأفادت الانباء الواردة من موقع التفجيرات أنها وقعت في مكان مكتظ بالمواطنين في آخر خط السرفيس في الحي المكتظ بالسكان والمارة والبسطات والمحال التجارية،
Aleppo will not fall not because I trust the regime but because most Aleppines are not willing to live with the Islamist thugs.

November 6th, 2012, 4:10 pm

How can you quote red KGB media like Pravda, Voice of Russia, Russia Today and other garbage?
Are you that naive – that you can’t see the ulterior motive of these dictatorships like China and Russia?

Every year, 2 countries switch from totalitarianism to democracy. That means the trend is working against Beijing and Moscow, because in a few decades the entire globe will be democratic.
So these regimes like Tehran are panicky, which is why all the pro-Assad headlines are coming from news outlets like PressTV, Shanghai Daily, etc.

November 6th, 2012, 4:17 pm

DB 84,

You just discovered what we’e been complaining about for ages here on this blog which is administered from the heartland of the US.

But you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Wait until Ann/Spam shows up with his/her truckload of Pravda/VoR/RT/SANA/Dunya/AsiaTimes/3Alam(of Mullah-stan) and the rest of the mouthpieces of the Global Left US Takeover Squad or GLUSTS for short.

November 6th, 2012, 4:26 pm

Armed men blast evangelical church in Syria’s Aleppo – 2012-11-07

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-11/07/c_123921941.htm

DAMASCUS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) — A large portion of an evangelical church in Syria’s Aleppo was destroyed after armed men blasted the building on Tuesday, the pro-government al-Ekhbaria TV reported.

The church is located at al-Jdaideh district in the old quarter of Aleppo, reports said.

Blasts have become daily occurrences in the unrest-hit country. Earlier Tuesday, three people were killed when a booby-trapped car went off in the resort town of Zabadani near the Syrian capital Damascus, the pro-government Sham FM reported.

Meanwhile, a car bomb was dismantled by engineering units in Damascus’ district of Tadamun, witnesses told Xinhua.

Sounds of bomb shells reverberated in several areas across Damascus Tuesday in what appeared to be the army’s attacks on the rebels’ strongholds.

Activists reported aerial bombardments on the restive southern suburbs of Damascus, including Hajar al-Aswad and Tadamun. Intense clashes raged on in al-Tadamun and surrounding areas between the government troops and armed rebels.

November 6th, 2012, 4:32 pm

US to Focus Exclusively on Arming Al Qaeda in Syria – Nov 1, 2012

http://www.infowars.com/us-to-focus-exclusively-on-arming-al-qaeda-in-syria/

The Washington Post in its recent article, “U.S. looks to build alternative Syrian opposition leadership,” claims:

The Obama administration has spent the past several months in secret diplomatic negotiations aimed at building a new Syrian opposition leadership structure that it hopes can win the support of minority groups still backing President Bashar al-Assad.

The strategy, to be unveiled at a Syrian opposition meeting next week in Qatar, amounts to a last-ditch effort to prevent extremists from gaining the upper hand within the opposition and to stop the Syrian crisis from boiling over into the greater Middle East.

The Post also indicates that defacto “administrative zones” are being set up along the Turkish-Syrian border with “nonlethal” assistance provided by the United States, France and “other like-minded governments.” The so-called “Syrian National Council” is being discarded, as it is wholly seen as illegitimate by both Syrians and the world at large.

The Washington Post would also quote Secretary Clinton:

The SNC, Clinton said, should no longer be considered the “visible leader” of the opposition.

“There has to be a representation of those who are on the front lines, fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom,” she said during an unrelated visit to the Balkan states. “. . . And we also need an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution.”

It is clear that both the West’s political proxies, and its armed militant proxies have been compromised and the narrative that tentatively worked against Libya, is now unraveling and failing against Syria. While the US attempts to portray this latest move as an attempt to “prevent extremist elements from gaining the upper hand within the opposition,” it must be remembered that as early as 2007, US officials had admitted that efforts to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iran would include primarily US, Israeli, and Saudi armed extremists drawn from across the Arab World, and sent into Syria to create the very sectarian bloodbath now unfolding. Rhetoric of “freedom” and “democracy” serve merely as cover within which foreign military aggression is couched.

This was first exposed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker report titled, “”The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?”

In the report it specifically stated:

“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Hersh’s report would continue by stating:

“the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations.” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

The link between extremist groups and Saudi funding was also mentioned in the report, and reflects evidence regarding the origin and backers of similar extremists who flooded Iraq during the US occupation, sowing sectarian strife and killing Western troops alike:

“…[Saudi Arabia’s] Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that “they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was ‘We’ve created this movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs; it’s whothey throw them at—Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran.” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

It was exposed in “NATO Using Al Qaeda Rat Lines to Flood Syria With Foreign Terrorists,” that indeed, the very networks used by Al Qaeda to flood Iraq with foreign fighters is now being used by the United States, NATO and the Persian Gulf States of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to violently overthrow Syria. The narrative that recent US efforts aim at heading off “extremists” from “hijacking” the armed violence in Syria, is exposed as a blatant lie. Extremists have constituted the so-called “opposition” from the very beginning, by design, with explicit US, NATO, Saudi and Qatari funding, weapons, and support.

November 6th, 2012, 4:42 pm

US to Focus Exclusively on Arming Al Qaeda in Syria (exhibits)

Image: (Left) West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center’s 2007 report, “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq” indicated which areas in Syria Al Qaeda fighters filtering into Iraq came from. The overwhelming majority of them came from Dayr Al-Zawr in Syria’s southeast, Idlib in the north near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar’a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border. (Right) A map indicating the epicenters of violence in Syria indicate that the exact same hotbeds for Al Qaeda in 2007, now serve as the epicenters of so-called “pro-democracy fighters.”

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aEe1Gq1jh7o/UIhh1F9V5HI/AAAAAAAAEnU/uRuiniFtj4M/s640/WestPoint_1_SyriaAQvsAS.jpg

Image: The most prominent routes into Syria for foreign fighters is depicted, with the inset graph describing the most widely used routes by foreign fighters on their way to Iraq, as determined by West Point’s 2007 Combating Terrorism Center report “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq” (page 20). These same networks are now being used, with the addition of a more prominent role for Turkey, to target Syria directly. (Click to enlarge)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tu4Ju5QcChI/UIhlNcg8SKI/AAAAAAAAEpM/09DJnubA2rY/s640/MiddleEast_SyriaIraqAlQaeda_Diagram.jpg

November 6th, 2012, 4:48 pm

Juergen ! watch out!
جهاديون ألمان في الشبكة العنكبوتية
http://www.dw.de/%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A8%D9%83%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%86%D9%83%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%A9/a-16357102

November 6th, 2012, 5:21 pm